Alt-rock band Cracker happy to be back on the road, heads to Harmar this week

It’s a long way from performing socially distant, one-man private acoustic shows in driveways to being back on stage with a full six-piece band. But that’s the road David Lowery, front man for the classic alternative rock group Cracker, has traveled in just one month of pandemic time.

Cracker, led by lead singer Lowery and virtuoso lead guitarist Johnny Hickman, embarked on a 15-city summer tour that brings the group to Harmar on Wednesday for a concert at Pittsburgh Shrine Center Pavilion. The band will play fan-favorite songs like “Low,” “Euro-Trash Girl” and “Get Off This” from Cracker’s chart topping album “Kerosene Hat” and deep cuts from its 29-year recording career.

“I did the acoustic shows in the Bay Area back in May and that was pretty interesting,” said Lowery. “When we booked them in advance, we didn’t know how those shows would be.”

Other than that, Lowery and his band haven’t performed live in 15 months. He admits there is plenty of rust to shake off. So much so that Cracker, which normally doesn’t do extensive rehearsals, has actually been rehearsing for this tour.

“We’ve been trying to get back up to speed. I don’t remember the last time I had that long of a period of time without playing shows. We’re really looking forward to getting back on the road and playing shows and seeing people,” Lowery said.

Lowery teaches music business at the University of Georgia. Along with doing some solo recordings, he managed to stay pretty busy during the pandemic.

“I did them kind of virtually with most of the guys in Cracker, at least the ones that live in Georgia and we could send files back and forth and do a little bit of studio stuff together,” Lowery said. “So, I made like an album-and-a-half during that time and just hung out with my sons and my wife.”

Lowery said the covid lay off gave him a chance to do things he hasn’t been able to do, like adopting a shelter dog — a pit bull named “Gypsy” that is making the trip with Cracker to Pittsburgh.

“She’s in the car with us right now,” Lowery said during a phone interview with the Tribune-Review. “She’s actually a tour dog. We’ve been training her, getting her ready to be a band dog so that she’s comfortable being in a vehicle and being on the road. She’ll actually be in Pittsburgh.”

Cracker made numerous Pittsburgh appearances over the years with its most recent stop happening in November 2019 at Moondog’s in Blawnox as part of the group’s “Turkey Hangover Tour.”

Lowery had one memory that stood out from a Cracker show at the old Metropol Dance & Night Club in Pittsburgh.

“They had live shows with bands early and then it would flip to a dance club,” said Lowery. “I remember being backstage at the Metropol and pushing through a door thinking it was going out back and then finding myself in the middle of this dance club and the door locked behind me. I was in a totally different reality.

“We went to Pittsburgh every tour. It was a good, solid town for us.”

On this tour, Cracker also plans to play songs from its most recent double-album “Berkeley to Bakersfield,” which is part punk and part country. Though it was released seven years ago and not nearly as well known as “Kerosene Hat,” it’s a record their fans should be excited to hear.

“Berkeley to Bakersfield” showcases the alternative rock sound of California’s better known coastal areas on one album as well as the Americana indigenous to the inland area Lowery grew up in. He admits to the song “California Country Boy” being somewhat autobiographical.

“That is kind of my life. I grew up in the orchards in the Inland Empire of Southern California,” said Lowery. “I put myself through college by driving a truck or being the production manager for this farm just south of Santa Cruz in the Salinas Valley. When you talk about being from the Inland Empire it’s with some pride and if people think that we’re a little rougher, we’re not going to disabuse you of the notion.”

All of that of course came before Lowery became a rock star, first with the alternative band Camper Van Beethoven and then in a major way with Cracker, a band that received a lot of air play on rock radio and MTV back in its early to mid 90s heyday. Lowery said a lot has changed in the music industry since then.

“I wouldn’t want to be a young band today because, the way the revenue streams work, it’s really drastically different and it tends to overpay the top artists and underpay the younger artists,” said Lowery.

“The algorithms rule now,” he said. “You used to be able to walk into a radio station and there was a music director and she might go ‘I like this song. We’re going to play it.’ I don’t know how you negotiate with an algorithm. The thing about human curation, which we lack, is the things you don’t know that you’re going to like.”

Lowery said he still likes playing live shows but limits his touring to breaks in his teaching schedule, mainly holidays and during the summer.

“It’s a cliché but we play for free, you pay us to travel.”